The ones we hate

Chapter 7

'Miss Rivers! Mr. Maxwell! My office! Now!'

Shit. That couldn't mean anything good.

I looked at Leo, and he shrugged. I closed my laptop on which I was working on next week's article and walked to Mr. Klaus's office. He was standing beside oh-so-high-and-mighty-boss-chair.

'Joe has gone to his father's funeral. I need your article by this Sunday, not the next.'

'What!?' 

'But sit, we haven't-'

'I don't give. a. shit. I need it by Saturday. I realize that is a holiday, so anytime around noon is good.' said our dumbass leader.

SATURDAY IS TOMORROW!!!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!

I was about to express my not-so-polite feelings to him when Leo spoke.

'We'll have it, sir.' I looked at Leo, frowning, hoping he would see my expression and realize that NO WE MOST CERTAINLY WOULD NOT! 

The astounding level of this man's rashness, I swear-

Despite myself, I nodded. Mr Klaus looked at us coldly as if to say 'You're done here.' We took that as our cue to leave and exited the room. 

As soon as we were outside, I poked Leo in the ribs. He flinched.

'Leo! Why would you say that? We're barely a quarter of the way done!' He smiled grimly.

'Deal with it. This could be good, bump us on the ladder.' 

'Ah. Yes.' I chuckled. 'That ladder.' He patted my back. 

'Now that's a good team player.' I laughed and walked to my desk.

'You sounded a lot like Ja-' I stopped short and grimaced at the mention of Jacob's name. He did nothing wrong, he was the one who leaked the bet. Not on purpose, though. My god, I should really get over that.

'Like who?' I jumped out of my trance and looked at Leo. He was looking at me with a quizzical expression.

'No one, you wouldn't know him.' He shrugged. 'Ok. Never mind, we better get working on the article if we want to give it to the boss tomorrow.' He sat on his chair and started reading through my notes. 'Damn, your handwriting is still as neat as it ever was.' I grinned. 'And I assume yours is the same?' He chuckled and nodded. 'Ugly as shit.'

****************

Over the next couple hours, me and Leo just typed away on our computers, editing, and stopping to get coffee and snacks. He made bratty little comments on my notes, and me on his editing, etc etc.

 My fingers were aching, my legs had probably fallen asleep, and my head wouldn't stop throbbing. I needed a break. I looked at the clock. 

Wait, what!?

Couldn't be.

It was 12? Do these people not lock up? How had we not seen everyone leave? It was like one of those scenes in movies, in which everyone's moving in the busy cities in time-lapse.

I yawned. I needed sleep as well. I turned off my PC, wore my coat, and slung my bag over my shoulders.

'I'm leaving.' Leo looked up from the screen.

God, he looked cute with glasses. (Think Hugh Grant in Notting Hill)

'I'll drop you.' he said, getting up.

'It's fine. I'll get a cab.' I said. I did not have the energy to book one, but that would be better than accepting defeat to high-and-mighty Leo.

'At this hour?' He shook his head.

'It's New York.' 

'It's 12. Plus, I was gonna leave anyway. I'll drop you.' I shrugged. What difference did it make? 'Sure.'

We walked to his car and got in. He turned up the heat and turned the ignition on.

'Do you want music?' he said while turning the car into the busy streets of New York (even at this hour).

'Nah, I'm too sleepy to vibe.' He chuckled at that.

After a few minutes of silence, I realized something. 'You fixed your heat.' I smiled.

'Huh?' 

'At Cara's wedding. Your heat was broken. And you lent me your...Oh. I should probably give you your jacket back. You can stop by my apartment. Have a cup of coffee and take your jacket.' He nodded. 

'Sure.'

We reached my apartment block soon and got out of the car. 

I turned the key to my apartment and was oddly nervous. Why, I don't know. It wasn't that big of a deal that he was seeing my place. I unlocked the door and walked in. Leo, however, was lingering by the doorway. I motioned for him to come in, so he did. He chuckled while looking around.

'Just like I thought it would be.' I side-eyed him. 'What's that supposed to mean?' 

'Y'know, it's just...so...you.' I smiled at his vague description. 

'Coffee?' He nodded and followed me to my tiny kitchen. I prepared a cup of coffee for us, and he sat at my island and continued observing my place.

'Nice place.' 

'Thanks.' I handed him his cup of coffee and he rolled his eyes at the mug.(playfully, I hope, or he would be dead)

'Really? I mean, of course, you of all people would have a Taylor Swift mug.' I chuckled.

'It's amazing.' I stood up. 'C'mon, lemme give you your jacket and then you can leave.' 

'That excited to get me out of your house?' 

'Mostly to sleep, but yeah also that.' He followed me to my messy bedroom, and chuckled at my Taylor posters, while I looked for his jacket.

'Found it! It was shoved at the bottom of my closet. You may want to wash it.'

Leo smelt the jacket and wrinkled his nose. 'Jesus, Ashlyn. It stinks. Well, th- OH SHIT!'

I sighed at him. 'What now?' He made a puppy face at me and told me the "what".

'I forgot to type in the last paragraph.'

'WHAT!?'

'It's edited in your notebook, but I saved the previous copy instead. Just give me your notebook, and I'll do it when I get back home.' I sighed.

'Do it here.' I grabbed my laptop and motioned at him to sit on my bed.

He seemed.... nervous.

'I slept in yours.'

'Fair point.'

******************

We spent the next 30 minutes editing, and occasionly falling asleep on each other. 

'Done!' I yawned. 

'Finally. I'm going to go home now.' He was about to get up when I pulled on his shirt.

'No! You're a nice pillow. 5 minutes.' He sighed.

'Alright. Just 5 minutes.' He lay back down and allowed me to rest my head on his chest.

Just...

5...

Minutes....